Bills tried to trade up to No. 1 for Sammy Watkins

How high were the Buffalo Bills on Sammy Watkins heading into the draft? They had to trade a first round and fourth round pick in next year’s draft to the Cleveland Browns in order to move from No. 9 to No. 4. That’s a fairly steep price, but the Bills were willing to spend even more. Earlier this week, Bills director of player personnel Jim Monos admitted the team tried to acquire the top overall pick.

“We went with Houston right off the bat,” Monos said, via Pro Football Talk. “We tried to go to No. 1. They weren’t having it. They knew who they wanted, so we started working our way right down.”

The Bills really, really love Watkins. On Monday, St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead said he had discussions with a team that wanted to move to No. 2. It’s now safe to assume that team was the Bills, who were concerned that the Jacksonville Jaguars — in need of wide receiver help in the wake of the Justin Blackmon disaster — might take Watkins at No. 3.

“We really didn’t know,” Monos said. “Jacksonville never tipped it. We had just heard so much that they needed a receiver. We thought that this was going to be Sammy. We knew that if Jacksonville didn’t take him we had a shot.”

Plenty of teams call to inquire about moving up and back in the days and hours leading up to the draft, but the effort the Bills made to secure Watkins is noteworthy. They obviously would have been extremely disappointed if they somehow missed out on the former Clemson star.